I know it can be difficult to get into the festive spirit sometimes. I’m lucky this year that I enjoyed 2 festive menus, 1 at Harvey Nichols and 1 at The Midland before heading out to Tenerife to spend Christmas with my parents. For others it is not as easy, so here are some ideas you can do at home to get you feeling more festive ahead of the big day.
Make Cocktails.
I was invited to spend the day with the team from Jet2 before I headed out of the country. We kicked things off with a cocktail masterclass by The Harrogate Bartender. We were taught how to make a Ginger Cosmopolitan and a Snowflake cocktail. Ultimately, by tweaking some of the ingredients, you can make most classic cocktails festive. The Cosmopolitan adds a little gingerbread syrup to the standard Cosmo recipe (vodka, cointreau, cranberry juice and a squeeze of lime) then garnishes with a mini candy cane for the ultimate Christmas drink. The Snowflake is a creamy coconut cocktail, which is lovely for after a meal. Vanilla vodka, creme de cacao, coconut puree and milk are shaken into a highball glass with a sparkly coconut garnished rim. You can make it even creamier by using half and half instead but this is a little lighter.
Make Christmas Food With A Twist.
I have visited Food Sorcery before and really enjoyed their cooking classes so I was looking forward to making some Christmas food with them! We started with blinis, which was surprisingly easy to do and can be made to look really fancy so perfect for a dinner party. You can buy the blinis pre made or make them pretty simply with a basic recipe. We topped ours with a mix of mushrooms, micro herbs, truffle and edible flowers. We also used smoked salmon, which screams Christmas to me.
A lovely dish I would recommend are these Christmas Gyozas. Gyoza wrappers are stuffed with pulled turkey and spring onion before being steamed and lightly fried, then served on a bed of shredded brussels sprouts fried with a little onion and served with a spicy plum sauce. They’re a perfect starter for Christmas day or a good way of using up the leftovers.
Make A Festive Wreath.
Perhaps not as easy to do at home but getting creative and making your own Festive wreath is great fun, even for those of us without that creative touch. Grab yourself a ring of oasis, a package of foliage and whatever decorations you want. Cut the foliage to size and fix it into the oasis, going around the circle until you can no longer see the oasis underneath. I would recommend using florist wire too as it really helps to keep the foliage in place and hides those areas of the oasis you are struggling to cover. I used dried orange, cinnamon sticks and thistle to jazz mine up but you can use pretty much any decoration you like. I’d add a big red bow and some fairy lights next time! We were under the expert instruction of a professional florist and I would recommend doing a masterclass, but with a little planning there is no reason why you couldn’t do this at home. Even without a creative flair, I was really impressed with my wreath which now has pride of place on my front door.
